Replacing the Backyard Fence

 The fence for the backyard was installed in two stages.  In Oct 1987, the bulk of the fence was put in.  Then in June 1999, the two gates were put in, to seal off the back yard, to keep the dog in.  So most of the fence is 37 years old, and it shows.

So it seems time to get a new fence.  Coincidentally, the fence between us and 10600 was just replaced by the neighbor.

We wanted to use the metal posts that one neighbor used, and the 3-rail design of the other.  Plus in speaking to the neighbor behind us, he reminded us that we have raised the ground level around the big tree in the back (the General) which then steps down to zone 7 and the Blue Rock Pool.  We estimated the materials alone would run about $6,000.

One problem was the Bamboo Grove.  It sits right in the back corner of the backyard and goes right up to the fence. 

To be able to even see the fence, much less do any work, we need some space next to the fence.  So we used saws and trimmers to clear our a two foot section next to the fence. 

At the other corner of the backyard we had a similar problem,

And a similar solution.

We have been looking at fences and comments on NextDoor about replacing fences, and came up with a list of some 9 possible fence replacement.  We picked 4 of those and got 3 quotes out of them. One was at $12,289, while the other two were around $10,000.  So we went with Ram Fencing at $10,400.

The materials for the new fence were deliverd on Wednesday.

 And on Thursday morning, a crew showed up and started taking out the old fence.  The 8-foot sections of fence between the 4x4 supports where knocked down and carried off as one piece.

This left the old 4x4 posts.

The posts were removed leaving a wide-open space.

A new hole was dug -- a post hole digger and a jack hammer as necessary

A new metal pole was inserted, and concrete poured around it to hold it in place.

 

 Once the old fence was gone, it was obvious that the work to put 4x4 limestone blocks under the old fence, and provide a base for the new fence, was incomplete.  There was a section where the rock wall met the old fence.  I vaguely remember having done that part but there was some issue with one of the utility companies wanting to run new wires or pipe to the neighbor, so it was taken out.  And there was another section behind the green electrical box that was just inaccessible with the old fence in place.  With the old fence gone, I had one night to fix these problems.  Luckily, I had purchased 4x4 stone blocks from Whittlesey Landscaping (a bit over 8 feet of blocks), and had some cement and mortar left over from other projects, so I was able to dig a trench and pour the concrete where I needed the stones.  My leftover mortar was just enough to do the section by the rock wall.

And early the next morning I went to Home Depot to get another 60 pound bag of mortar ($7.56) and used it to set the stones behind the green electrical box.

 

I don't think the workmen even noticed the work that was done.

When they arrived, having let the concrete set overnight, brackets were attached to the pole.

Rails were then attached to the brackets.

And then the pickets were attached to the rails.

That went pretty much like expected on the back fence.  The side fence was a bit more complex.  The old fence was installed before we did any work in the back.  part of the work we did was to try to level the ground around the General.  To do that we built a rock retaining wall between Zone 7 (the lower part) and Zone 8 (the upper part around the General) and then brought in truckloads of dirt to raise the ground level in Zone 8.  To contain it, the rock retaining wall was separated Zone 7 from Zone 8.  But we also needed to contain the new dirt along the fence line between us and our neighbors.  So we built a different retaining wall of 4x4 limestone blocks) on our side of the fence that started at nothing (at the upper corner and grew to about two feet where the fence meet the large rock retaining wall.  By raising the ground level around the General, the fence effectively went from 6 feet above ground level (at the corner) to only 4 feet above ground level with two feet of the fence being below ground level, on the outside of the small 4x4 stone wall.

When we removed the old fence, this 4x4 limestone block retaining wall became visible.

For the new fence, the design was to put the new pickets on top of  the 4x4 stone wall.  This required extra tall metal poles.

And as soon as we passed the rock wall, there would be a two-foot drop to the ground level in Zone 7 and then into the Bamboo Grove. So the pickets suddenly were not 6 foot but 8 foot.  But we need to be back to 6 foot when we get to the corner of the fence, so there is a short section where the height decreases from 8 foot back to 6 foot.

There is one small section when the 4s4 stone wall steps down from the Blue Rock Pool to the Bamboo Grove.  Unfortunately, the crew did not start decreasing the height from the 8 foot section early enough and when the wall drops from the Blue Rock Pool to the Bamboo Grove, they needed an 8 foot, 9 inch slat, so they were 9 inches too short.  The eventual solution is to raise the stone wall, but temporarily,  we just put two horizontal boards, to seal the gap.

In general, there is a design tension between having the fence be straight across at the top and following the ground at the bottom.  This becomes more of an issue when the ground level drops (or raises).  For example, for reasons I don't know, the stone border wall for the Bamboo Grove is a bit lower than for the backyard generally.

The long term solution is to make the Bamboo Grove wall the same height as the rest of the backyard, but in the short term, we have a noticeable gap under the fence in the corner of the Bamboo Grove.

And of course we have the two gates.  On the West side of the house

We changed this gate so that it opens into the back yard, instead of out to the front.  Since the ground slopes down from the front to the back, we had problems with being able to open the previous gate; this one opens easily.

And similarly, on the other side of the house, by the garage, we have the gate over the sidewalk

This gate has always opened into the backyard.

As a practical matter, all the digging, nailing, posts, rails, and pickets with people and material being moved to and fro, everything within a couple of feet of the fence has been trampled into the ground.  Save some special plants that were carefully worked around. Compare the following before and after images.

Update, March 2025.  It's difficult to see in the photo, but when they put the fence from the garage towards the neighbor's house, they notched one of the pickets for a branch of the crepe myrtle.  And there was another branch a bit further down that sat on top of the fence.

 

One or the other, or both, of these branches rubbed against the fence, creating a pretty continuous squeaking noise.  So I decided to cut them both off, well back from the fence.

 

Repairing the French Drain

 The camera had identified what appeared to be a root blocking the French drain, so it seems that it needed to be dug up and repaired. The guy who ran the camera used a device to locate where the camera was in the pipe and marked the spot on the surface, so I knew, more or less, where the break was.

The French drain should be running along parallel to the side of the lot, parallel to the fence,  so I started digging where that should be.

Luckily I missed the irrigation line.  About two feet down, I found the French drain.

The French drain consists of three 4-inch PVC pipes surrounded by rock wrapped in landscape cloth.

 Peeling off the landscape fabric exposes the rocks

And removing the rocks exposes the pipes.

Now we know that the blockage is somewhere around here, but it may be a bit up the pipe or down the pipe.  We can't really be sure.  But it seems we are just downstream from a joint of some kind, so we can replace the pipe at that joint.  So we cut into the pipe and then will check up and down to find our problem.

And the blockage is just at the joint.  But it is not a root; it's just a bunch of wet and decaying leaves.  Pulling these leaves and the ones downstream from our opening out by hand, we seem to clear the pipe.  Putting the camera in the pipe to see what is downstream from the opening, we find

The pipe is open, but there is an opening in the side of the pipe.  Cutting a larger section out of the pipe, we can see the opening clearly.

Something has eroded or chewed an opening in the side of the pipe and then into the adjoining pipe, or it came from the adjoining pipe and broke into the center pipe.  This does not seem to be from just erosion or corrosion. It looks more like something chewed its way from one pipe to the other.  Since the entire system is under ground, where did it come from and where did it go.  Actually, there is an entrance/exit from the roof, into the rain gutters, down the down spout into the drain pipes.  Something could have gotten in when the roof was replaced, and the gutters replaced.

There is an pointy edge of the pipe that sticks into the main drain line.  This could start collecting leaves and slowly clogged the line with leaves, which would have been washed down from the roof during the time when we did not have leaf guards over the rain gutters.

But to repair the line, we have to take it out and replace it.  We cut out the section that is damaged.

This presents us with another problem.  The line is supposed to be round, but the top has collapsed, and even the part of the pipe remaining is seriously compressed.

Looking into the pipe, it seems this is the case for some distance. 

This section of pipe should be 10 feet long, and then there is a joint for the next piece of pipe.  That joint should be more round, so we need to dig all the way to the next joint in hopes of getting a round pipe to attach our replacement pipe.

We first identify the area that we will need to trench.  Ten feet from the last joint to the presumed next one.

 One day of digging gets us down about 12 inches, making a trench that is 12 inches wide and 24 inches from the fence.

Another day of digging gets us down to the landscape fabric around the French drain, 20 to 24 inches deep.

Once we open up the landscape fabric and remove the rocks, we have the pipe itself.

And as we expected, the pipe was 10 feet long and slips into another pipe.

The joints are not cemented, so we can just lift the old pipe out.

This puts us in position to rebuild the French drain.  First we build a new clean-out and attach it to the pipe coming down the hill.

Then we need a new pipe to go from this new clean=out down to the other pipe.  We buy a new Schedule 40 heavy-duty PVC 4-inch pipe and trim it to about the 100 inches that are needed from the clean-out to the pipe at the other end of the trench.

This slips into the clean--out end just fine, and leaves us with two pipes that abut at the other end -- one the new Schedule 40 PVC and the other the flared end of the old drainage pipe. 

 

The flared end of the old drainage pipe is not quite round.  It is stronger than the pipe we removed, but it has still been squashed into somewhat of an oval.

However, just as a force down squashed the pipe and caused it to stick out on the sides, if we use a wedge between the pipe and the earth/pipes on both sides, we can squish it back in towards the center and up in the middle, getting it temporarily back to a more circular shape.  We have to dig out all around it, including below, so that we can attach something to the end of the old drain pipe.

Searching for what we can use to connect these two pipes, we note that both of them have an outside diameter of 4 inches.  Checking at Home Depot, we found a flexible rubber connector that works for two 4 inch pipes -- the Fernco 1056-44.  It slips over the joint and has two worm gear clamps to hold it tight to the pipes.

Since it is flexible rubber, it doesn't matter that the old drainage pipe is not quite a perfect circle.  We can slide it onto the Schedule 40 pipe, lower the pipe into position and then slide it back over the end of the old drainage pipe.  Then the two worm gear clamps can then be used to tighten it in place.

 That then finishes the repair and rebuilding of the drain itself.

We want the pipes to be well supported, so we put sand around them, to get a tight fit and complete support.

 

I know it looks like dirty water, but it is five 50-pound bags of sand ($30.15 from Home Depot).

We wet the sand down, to help it flow into any hidden spots, so that it supports the pipe, then covered the pipes with the rocks.

 Added a layer of landscape fabric.

 And then buried it all with dirt.

But, we used some of the dirt from the digging to even the back yard perimeter around the new fence that the neighbors at 10600 put in, so we need more dirt.  We bought 32 bags of the dirt we have been buying from Home Depot ($99.42) -- two trips with 16 bags each time.

Spreading the dirt around, fills the trench, and can be raked smooth.

Then we can turn our attention to the Blue Rock Pool, where the French drain terminates.

We use the rocks to slow any water flow and allow it to soak in, but we don't want the rocks blocking the pipes.  So we put a plastic cage around the end of the pipe, so that the water can freely flow out.

We bury all that under the plain river rock,

And restore the Blue River Rock on top of that to give a finished appearance.

Painting the Inside of the House

 After getting the bathrooms remodeled, we wanted to go ahead and get the rest of the inside of the house finished.  That means making sure that all the rooms have been painted.  We painted the computer room when we had the ceiling removed and the loft created in 2002. The Guest Bedroom next to it was painted when Dorothy moved in in 2012, and for some reason, I did the Dining Room too.  The Back Bedroom and Bathroom were painted in 2019 when the bathroom was remodeled.  And of course the Master Bath and Center Bath have just been redone this year.

So that leaves the Kitchen, the Living Room, the Library, the Master Bedroom and the Pass-thru as major rooms.  Plus, the Utility Room, Pantry, Entryway, Coat Closet, Master Closet, Hallway, and the Closets for the Back Bedroom and the Guest Bedroom. Five major rooms, plus five closets/pantry, and the 3 small rooms: utility, entry, and hallway.

In addition, the two closets, for the Back Bedroom and Guest Bedroom, and the Pantry still had popcorn ceilings, so we asked for those to be redone to match the walls, and then painted at the same time.

We used Angie's List (now called just Angi) to generate a list of highly rated painters. And then selected four from that list. Plus we added the one that had painted our daughter's condo recently.  One of those did not respond, so we got 4 estimates.  One came out suspiciously low, one too high and two others were effectively the same in the middle, and one of those two was Fresh Coat Painting, who had painted my daughter's condo.  So we went with them, with an estimate of $4843.94.  This was all in the middle of June.

Erick at Fresh Coat called a week or so later and said they could start on Monday, 1 July, giving us a week or so to prepare.

Linda had picked out the colors -- Hemp for the walls and Heavy Cream for the ceilings (for the 2 closets and pantry that were having the popcorn removed).  These are both Martha Stewart colors that we use elsewhere in the house.  The ceilings are almost all Heavy Cream, and we already have Hemp in the Dining Room and the Guest Bedroom.

The main thing we had to do for the painters was to move all the furniture away from the walls, so they could be painted.  We used the rooms that were not being painted as storage for the stuff that had to be moved out of the other rooms.  Plus all the hanging clothes had to be taken out of the closets, and all the pictures, hat racks,   and such removed from the walls.  The result was large piles of stuff in the center of the rooms and on the beds.

But it also meant that some shelves were bare for the first time in a long time.

It took two days for them to paint.  I think it was 4 to 6 people. After the ceilings had the popcorn removed, they were textured and then a sealer applied.  All the walls and ceilings got two coats of the new paint.

Since the Master Bedroom was being painted, we moved to the Back Bedroom to keep out of the way.

While I had the opportunity, I sanded the closet rods and applied a coat of polyurethane. I did the same to the pantry shelves and the surface of the built-in desk in the kitchen.  

Then while that dried, I went about re-installing all the stuff I had removed to allow them to paint -- shelf supports, curtain rod holders in the library, the light fixtures in the rooms which had the ceiling redone, the gas dryer, the wire shelves in the utility room and the closets, and so on.  Then we started to put things back and move the furniture back in place. which took another week.  We still have some of that to do.